It was a coincidence, not a message, that the Ducks assigned newly recalled left wing Emerson Etem to sit in the locker stall previously occupied by Teemu Selanne at the Honda Center.
Etem, summoned from Norfolk, Va., of the American Hockey League after...

First, Kyle Palmieri caught an edge. That was bad, because the fall and crash he suffered in a preseason hockey workout forced him out of the Ducks' first 18 regular-season games.
Since his return, Palmieri has brought an edge. That has been a boon,...

The ceremony the Kings staged to retire Rob Blake's jersey was very much like Blake himself: unpretentious, mostly understated but illuminated by genuine emotion that hit home as hard as any punch to the gut.
The emotional jolts Saturday weren't as...

Rule changes and modifications intended to increase scoring did little to pump up goal production during the first half of the season, a point the NHL passed Saturday.
Through Saturday's action (624 games) the goals-per-game average was 5.36,...

It wasn’t a decision as much as it was second nature.
And it’s one of the reasons the Ducks believe they’re championship-worthy.
In the final minute of Sunday’s eventual 5-4 shootout victory over the Winnipeg Jets at Honda Center, Ducks first-line right wing Corey Perry was decked to the ice by a hit he never saw coming from Jets toughman Dustin Byfuglien.
Even though the Ducks were just a minute from salvaging at least a point from a game that appeared out of their grasp...

Teemu Selanne flashed his patented smile, clapped, then put an arm around his former Ducks teammate and Finnish countryman Saku Koivu in a Honda Center suite Sunday night.
A perfect evening had just closed with a dramatic Ducks’ victory, iced in the sixth round of the shootout by Finland’s Sami Vatanen as the Ducks beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-4, on the team’s first number retirement ceremony.
“We've got good character in this team,” Vatanen said.
That asset was well known...

It was the perfect touch in a ceremony illuminated by many poignant moments, an afternoon of joy and laughter and more than a few suspiciously moist eyes.
Teemu Selanne arrived for his jersey retirement festivities Sunday at the Honda Center by walking down an aisle and through the crowd to reach the ice, high-fiving and patting the shoulders of hundreds of friends he had never met. His Hall of Fame career ended last May, but his bond with fans in his adopted home of Orange County — and fans...

Teemu Selanne's storybook career as an Anaheim Duck was honored Sunday in a memorable number-retirement ceremony, the evening closing with a fitting ending authored by Selanne's countryman and former teammate.
The Ducks' Finnish defenseman Sami Vatanen, in his first NHL shootout attempt, rifled the game-winning shot past Winnipeg goalie Ondrej Pavelec, and Anaheim pulled out a 5-4 come-from-behind victory in front of a sold-out Honda Center crowd.
"I have to say I was honored to have the chance to...

Retiring Teemu Selanne’s jersey before any other member of the Ducks was not only the right thing to do but the only thing, according to several of his former teammates who returned to Anaheim for Sunday’s retirement of Selanne’s familiar number 8 at the Honda Center.
“You couldn’t think of anybody else being first,” said retired goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who played alongside Selanne on the Ducks’ 2007 Stanley Cup championship team and was drawn into...

Teemu Selanne was late to everything, sometimes so tardy his Ducks teammates would tell the bus driver to leave the practice rink without him. He'd ride back to the hotel in the equipment truck, fuming, but never for long. And no one could be angry with him, so sunny and fun-loving was his nature.
"He called it 'on time' because he was the last guy," Ryan Getzlaf said.
Funny, then, that the man whose timing was off chose the right moment to retire, when fans wanted more of him, even if Coach Bruce...

Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf was surprised Saturday to be the lone Anaheim player selected to the NHL All-Star game despite the team's first-place standing in the Pacific Division (26-10-6).
"When you're talking about the first-place team … I'm definitely not doing this by myself, that's for sure," Getzlaf said after second-line center Ryan Kesler (29 points) and forwards Matt Beleskey (17 goals) and Corey Perry (15 goals) were omitted from the rosters for the Jan. 25 game in Columbus, Ohio.
"We'...